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POLITICO 44

The former House Speaker had been scheduled to appear later in the day at a cramped store in a Washington, D.C. train station — an event that provoked slack-jawed incredulity in the political world given the nearing Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses and the need for him to capitalize on his early state momentum.

The cancellation of a book event sounds like an unusual measure of a presidential candidate’s fire-in-the-belly, but not in this election, where it hasn’t always been clear what took prominence — the race for the White House or hawking books.

At critical times in their day-to-day campaign trail schedules, Gingrich, Herman Cain and Michele Bachmann all displayed a hunger to move product that seemed to overshadow their interest in the presidency.

Cain declined to rearrange his own book tour after his breakthrough Florida straw poll victory in September. Michele Bachmann, who’s been trying to resuscitate her campaign, spent three days last week in South Carolina with a public schedule that only took her to Barnes & Noble and Books-a-Million locations. Gingrich himself found it hard to be taken seriously as a candidate for much of the campaign, in no small part because he spent more time traveling the country selling his books and screening his movies than doing retail political events with voters.

In a culture where politics has become a springboard to celebrity, the integration of the book tours into the presidential campaign is a natural progression, said Mark Wallace, a veteran of the last three Republican presidential campaigns and George W. Bush’s 2004 deputy campaign manager.

“What you’re seeing now is the flipside of that political calculus,” Wallace said, “maybe for money, getting the message out — or enhancing their political celebrity status in terms of enhancing their career optionality if they should drop out.”

On the other hand, Wallace said, they might just be visionaries who hit on a thrifty new way to maximize exposure in a shifting media and campaign atmosphere.

“If you have a chance of going to Iowa and talking to three people and going to Chicago to talk to a national audience that plays in Iowa, which do you do?” Wallace asked. “You have to respect that they’ve been able to capture a very a-traditional method of campaigning.”

Cain, after all, shot to the top of the polls in October at precisely the moment that most political observers were scoffing at him for ditching the campaign trail to pump up his “This is Herman Cain!” in New York television studios and states that won’t vote until after the snow melts.

Cain said at the time that he felt obligated to do the events out of deference to Simon & Schuster for giving him the contract. But he certainly didn’t suffer for the effort. Even stops in Tennessee and a northern Virginia Costco brought him media attention, which, in turn, fed his poll numbers.

He was still riding high — and doing book events — when the sexual harassment allegations against him first surfaced. Even after, when he went on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” the evening following accuser Sharon Bialek’s press conference with Gloria Allred, Cain was there, officially, to plug his book, as he did with David Letterman and others over the following weeks.

This bunch of nincompoops are the best conservatives in the whole U S A? This is what your four year search has come up with? This? Seriously? No wonder all you conservatives are losing your minds - and no amount of “But, Obama is bad too!” will make the crap sandwich you’re eating taste any better. And, no. I don't want any, thankyouverymuch.

The current GOP reminds me very much of the Democrats in the 1980's in that neither would miss an opportunity to.......miss an opportunity.

The current hope of the GOP is that the economy will continue to struggle. They're praying for unemployment to reach double digits

As for this whacky bunch?

Yikes.

Romney is hated by Democrats and half the GOP

I would think that Gingrich stands a better chance than Romney against Obama.

But - that isn't saying much.

The GOP's only hope is that the Tea Party stays home for the general election. Which, won't be hard if Romney gets the nod.

And if it's Gingrich - wait until the country gets a full three months of him during the campaign.

Gee, I don't remember this kind of article when Okole was campaigning, at at every stop had people hawking the books he claimed to have written . . .and for an extra $250 you could get a signed one out of the stack. For $500, he would sign one with your name in it. Our local librarian was proudly showing them off, one personalized and the other off the stack . . .until someone pointed out that the signatures didn't quite look the same.

Bill Ayres not only wrote them for B-Student Barack, but maybe he SIGNED them, too . . !

I believe technology has made the "writing" of a book an accessable utility for most people who have a public presence to market the book. Real writers of real books are serious people who have a labor of love. Much of what we call books today are little more than glorified high school essays.

I also believe many of these books are not really read by the people who buy them. They probably read more of the comments about the books than the pages of the books.

.Seriously, who read Sarah Palins book? How many teachers assigned it as summer reading?

A new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll out today finds Trump tied with Mike Huckabee atop the field of potential GOP White House contenders. According to the poll, Trump and Huckabee both garner 19 percent support among likely GOP voters. Sarah Palin comes in second, with 12 percent, while Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich are tied atthird, with 11 percent support each.

The poll echoes the findings of a NBC/Wall Street Journal poll last week that found Trump bouncing into second place among likely contenders, tied with Huckabee.

I find the stardom of Politicians a little disturbing. How does someone like Rick Perry, a career in government, make as much as he does? Of course, the sale of books and maybe other methods. As a student of international studies, it was always a strong indicator of the weakness of a democracy on how rich Politicians became while in office.

Obama and all the other candidates are shams for book writing. Good for the candidates that have not sold there souls for the increase of purse in their pursuit of the highest civil servant office.

How about this for a novel campaign? A real proposed amendment and a petition supporting it, with the number of signatories growing by leaps and bounds. A shocking development: the American people don't believe megacorporations are people! Sign the petition sponsored by Sen.Bernie Sanders here (any citizen from any state can sign): http://sanders.senate.gov/peti...

Republicans are very weird. They figure that running for President gives the opportunity to sell their wares.

This is how every single democrat views this. They are selling books. But Dems and liberals aren't that bright. Why would I say that? Because the real reason they write these books is so that the voter can READ their philosophy and build their personal Idenity. They want to be elected President. Barack Obama did it. THEY ALL DO IT. It's up to intelligent people to read the books and understand each of their points of view. But since dems don't read, they just deduce that they are simply selling books and make insults instead of taking the time to read for themselves. Libs just can't help it. Insults are ingrained in their automatic response. Like I said. Their just not that bright.